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1970 Taylor Vintage Port

SKU #98006199 points
Wine Enthusiast

This wine's dark garnet color with minimal bricking suggests a relatively youthful wine and this certainly could age longer, although it's also delicious now. Wonderfully complex floral and herbal scents easily move into deep, rich flavors of chocolate and cherries, sprinkled with a healthy dose of Douro minerality and spice. Drink or hold. (JC)
(2/2007)

98 points
Wine Spectator

Clearly lives up to Taylor's superb reputation. Deep ruby, with intense violet and chocolate aromas, full-bodied, with gorgeous fruit flavors, full but well-integrated tannins and an extremely long finish. Amazing balance and finesse. Still needs time. (JS)
(6/1989)

96 points
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

This house must certainly be the Latour of Portugal. Their ports are remarkably backward yet still impressive when young. Of all the vintage ports, those of Taylor need the longest time to mature and even when fully mature seem to have an inner strength and firmness that keep them going for decades. Their tawnys are also among the very best, though somewhat expensive. (RP)
(1/1989)

94 points
John Gilman

While I have had little recent experience with the 1985 or 1977 Taylor, I have drunk quite a bit of the 1970 vintage over the last decade. This is a vintage of Taylor that has always offered up a more open and easy-going personality, and has been drinking beautifully since at least the early 1990s. Despite its unusual (by Taylor standards) precociousness, the wine has continued to evolve and improve over the last fifteen years, seemingly gaining in depth and purity with each passing year. The bottle we had at our vertical tasting was flat out stunning, offering up a brilliant purity that was also readily apparent in the 1992 vintage. The bouquet is a magnificent mélange of sweet black cherries and plums, black licorice, chocolate, tar, complex soil tones and a nice framing of cedary wood. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and refined, with beautiful mid-palate depth, a firm Taylor structural spine, and great acidity and grip on the very long, complex finish. Even at age thirty-six the wine seems slightly spirity on the backend- I am not sure if this is a function of it moving into a more mature profile, or if this will diminish even more as the years go by. But the ’70 Taylor is a superb bottle by any stretch of the imagination, and offers outstanding value by today’s standards.
(1/2007)

Jancis Robinson

Bricky garnet. Slighly darker fruit and some leather too, more savoury and slightly less freshness and not as lifted as the Graham’s. More raisin and Christmas cake sweetness and spice with a velvety texture. Luscious but still quite a bit of firmness. Full of fruit density still and tremendous length. (JR) 18/20
(10/2010)

K&L Notes

Now fully mature, the 1970 Taylor is a sublime Port to drink now. 98 points Neal Martin: "A deep garnet core with a faded brick rim. The nose is still tight, youthful with notes of liquorices, raisin, boot-polish and a little lemongrass. Again, very well defined and a little more intensity than the -63. The palate is full-bodied with firm tannins, very cohesive with superb ripeness: wild strawberry, lemongrass, smoke and dates with an incredibly long, persistent finish. There is an effortless nature to this port and having encountered this several times, this is undoubtedly the best bottle I have had. It has such weight on the finish that it will cruise past another 20-25 years in bottle. It just has the edge over the great -77. Tasted November 2007." (Wine Journal, 5/2008)

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Additional Information:

Varietal:

Other Red Wines

Country:

Portugal

- Although quite small, Portugal produces a great variety of wines ranging from light and fizzy Vinho Verde to hearty and tannic Port. Portugal is Europe's fourth-largest wine-producing region, and has been exporting its wine since the 14th century. The Douro Valley of Portugal is the original and current home for the world's finest Port. The valley spans from east of the city of Oporto all the way to the border of Spain and is the country's best known wine region. Lesser-appreciated DOCs like Bairrada and Dão area also emerging for their fine, rustic reds.

Sub-Region:

Port

- Port is a fortified wine made by stopping the fermentation with brandy. The result is a heavy sweet wine, most often red, that is dense, rich and high in alcohol. Port is made all over the world with some great results in Australia and South Africa, but the most famous of these dessert wines come from Portugal. The great port houses (or lodges) are located along the Duoro River on the steep slate slopes high above the valley floor. There are several styles of port, including Ruby, Tawny, Vintage Character, Late Bottle Vintage, Colheita, and Single Quinta. Vintage ports are made in special years that the houses declare.